This nomination proposal was published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic.

“The President of the Republic accepted the Prime Minister's proposal to appoint three new secretaries of State, to whom he will swear in office on Friday, at 7:30 pm, at Palácio de Belém”, the note reads.

Like Marta Temido's previous team, the new Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, will also have two Secretaries of State with him, who will replace PS MPs António Lacerda Sales and Fátima Fonseca.

Ricardo Mestre, born in Serpa, has been deputy director-general of the Directorate-General for Health since June this year, having graduated in economics from the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão of the University of Lisbon in 2001.

According to the curriculum note released by the Government, Ricardo Mestre is a specialist in hospital administration and has a postgraduate degree in administration of health services.

Margarida Tavares, from Vale de Cambra, is the coordinator of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Unit at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São Soão (CHUSJ).

With a degree in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and a master's degree in Public Health from the École de Santé Publique Institut Pasteur in Paris, Margarida Tavares is a graduate infectious disease assistant at the CHUSJ Infectious Diseases Service.

A member of the National Council for Public Health since 2020, she is also director of the Priority Program for the area of ​​Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection since 2021.

The new Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, a doctor, specialist in internal medicine, was sworn in last Saturday, replacing Marta Temido, who resigned on 30 August.

After being sworn in by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the former Socialist MEP assumed that he will have a “very demanding challenge” and that he will face it “with great determination, with a lot of desire to work for the health of the Portuguese and for the benefit of the Portuguese people”.

Asked if he is comfortable with the new SNS Statute, Manuel Pizarro replied: "If I didn't feel comfortable, I wouldn't be able to take office in this place today".